From the Intimations Information you was pleased to give me before you left this place, of a Design that it was intended ^in your Count^ ^I wd be proposed in the County of Albany^ to hold me up as a Candidate for the Office of Govr., I think it necessary to be ^very^ explicit on that Subject being persuaded that Unanimity in all our measures is to be ought to be the ardent Wish of every Member of this State, & it would be happy if ^as^ the Suffrages of the People for that important office could

The [Grand?] [illegible] of the Publick That the Office of first Magistrate of this State [illegible] [considerable?] ^will^ [illegible] be more respectable as well as more lucrative ^& consequently more desirable^ than the Place I now fill, [illegible] ^is very^ apparent to But Sir! my Object in the Course of the present Great Contest neither has been nor will be, either Rank or Money. I am persuaded that I can be more useful to the State in a judicial ^the place office^ I now hold, than in the one alluded to—& therefore [I shall] think it my Duty to continue in it. You are well [illegible] ^are acquainted with^ [illegible] the Reasons which enduce me to be of this opinion—[illegible] and altho I shall [illegible] entertain a high Sense of the Honor which my Friends may be ^are^ disposed to confer upon me, I must request the Favor of yourselves ^them^ not to encourage my being named as a Candidate for that Office, but to endeavour to unite the Votes of the Electors in that County of Albany in favor of some other Gentn.2 I am Dear Sir Your most Obt. & hble Servt.